Empty Apartment
by Oneiromancy
Summary: An apartment filled with mixed emotions between two lovers. «Seifer&Quistis»


**Empty Apartment  
**Written by: Oneiromancy

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FFVIII; its characters or the song.

**A/N: **I debated on actually extending this story. As some of you may know, this was originally a songfic oneshot, hence the 'stolen' title. From much consideration and the suggestions from reviewers, I present the uh, continuation of this 'realistic' tale of Quistis and Seifer. Also just a minor warning this _might_ contain clichéd relationship crap, unless some magical plot bunny decides to hop across my path. ;l

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A knock on the door, a tall young blonde man looked up from reading a magazine and walked towards the door. He glanced through the peep hole and opened it to face a young blonde woman holding an empty box.

He looked at her expectantly, folding his arms across his broad chest, an awkward silence beginning to cloud them while they were both lost in their own thoughts.

She half-heartedly smiled, breaking the silence, "I came by to pick up the last of my things."

He nodded, "You do know you still have a key to the door."

"Yes, I do." She paused, "but seeing as I don't live here anymore, it doesn't seem right to use it." As she said this, she dug through her purse. She retrieved her keys and slipped one of them off the key chain. She held it out for him, "Here."

He looked down at it, seemingly reluctant to take it, but he does, slipping it into the pocket of his jeans. He held his arm out in a gesture, welcoming her in.

She followed him inside, closing the door behind her.

They walked in silence across the room, starting with the kitchen, Quistis started to rummage through things, placing utensils and such into the box. Again, that silence suffocating both of them. Seifer racked his brain to make small talk, anything to make this situation either go by quicker, or less awkward as he watched her pack up things. "How's your job?"

Still continuing what she was doing, she answered, "It's good. Pay is good, people are good. Everything is… good." It was easy to say everything was good, a nice simple answer.

"Tch, work whore." He scoffed as he took a seat on a stool at the kitchen's island counter. The comment meant something to both of them.

She looked up at him, her thin-framed glasses slipping slightly down her nose. "At least I have a job, what about you? You've been jumping jobs. You can't stick long enough with anything."

His sea green eyes narrowed, "I may not be consistent with jobs, but you know one thing that I was willing to stick with."

She didn't reply back, either because she didn't know what to say or because she was made out to feel like the bad guy this time around. She finished with piling things into her box, and then made her way to the living room to further continue her job.

Seifer followed her, plopping down on the couch.

She placed the box down next to Seifer. She walked around the room picking up random things that belonged to her like picture frames, magazines, and figurines.

Once again making another attempt at idle conversation, Seifer broke the silence, "So you're a work whore, but are you happy?"

Her blue eyes glanced up at him, "Didn't I say before that everything is going well?"

"Yes, but, I repeat myself, are you happy?" his green eyes questioning her.

She knew what the happiness indication was about. She paused for a moment and looked up at him with a straight face, "Yes, yes I am." Her eyes contradicting what she said.

She reached for another picture frame, one of her and Seifer together. Her hand stopping inches from it as she stared. In the picture, Seifer was sitting in a computer chair with Quistis's arms wrapped around his shoulders as she stood behind leaning against him. The two of them both pairing a grin filled with laughter.

Seifer let out a chuckle, "I remember that day. After we finished taking those pictures, you were frustrated that the computer wouldn't download them."

She smiled slightly, still looking at the picture with a mixture of regret and humor, "Yeah, but I wasn't the only one. You kept smacking it thinking that if you tried force, it would work."

"Tch, yeah, but it did work." He smirked at her. "Eventually."

She tore her eyes away from the picture to look up at Seifer, "Do you want to keep it?"

"Nah, you can. I'll just end up throwing all the pictures out anyways."

"Oh," she nodded, "Okay." She hesitated for a moment debating whether to keep the picture or not. After a few moments of that hesitation, she took the picture and placed it with her other things.

She took a seat on the couch, the box between her and Seifer, "How about you, how are things?"

He shrugged, "Good."

She raised one eyebrow, "That's it, just good?"

"Yeah, good. Okay. Fine. Pick one."

She gave an exasperated sigh, not bothering to try to take the conversation with him any further. She retrieved the box.

That's how it was between them now. No more petty arguments but an awkward silence that had a tendency to envelope them. They responded with short answers to each of their questions, both unwilling to tread any further on what happen between them. This was their whole falling out.

She headed towards the single bedroom. The one they used to share together. Everything looked the same as she left it. The queen sized bed with its rumpled sheets because Quistis left the apartment first to go to work, which led Seifer to tidy up, but then again Seifer never tidied anything up.

She placed the box on the bed and looked around the room some more, scanning the oak dresser and the full length mirror. Out of the corner of her eye, Seifer leaned against the door frame studying her every movement.

She approached the closet and opened it, taking out clothes that she hadn't picked up yet. Dresses, skirts, coats, clothes she realized that she hardly wore anyways. She pulled out a red evening dress and held it up.

"I only wore this dress once." She stated looking over at Seifer.

"Yeah," he said recalling the moment. "You looked good in it." His eyes roamed over the dress.

She smiled faintly thinking about the night she wore it.

It was the one time that Seifer and her dressed up in formal clothes and went out to dinner. It was to celebrate Quistis getting a new job. The evening was lovely. They had dinner and went dancing. Seifer wasn't ecstatic about wearing his tuxedo but that all changed when Quistis walked out the bathroom wearing the slinky crimson dress. It contrasted nicely with her eyes making them seem more of a deeper blue than usual. It was their own fairy tale evening, one that other fairy tales would envy.

"Are you almost finished?" Seifer snapped, bringing her out of her reverie.

Still somewhat distance she answered, "Yeah, almost." She placed the dress in the box taking care not to inflict damage on it; as if she did it would break the memories that came along with it.

She kneeled down on the floor and opened one of the drawers of the oak dresser, ignoring Seifer's impatience. Pulling more clothes that will only make the box heavier for her to carry back to her car.

Realizing that she was going to take her time, Seifer walked into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. "How's the stupid cat?"

Quistis shook her head, "The cat has a name."

He snorted, "I know."

"Abscissa is doing fine." She answered.

Abscissa was a young calico cat that was abandoned near their apartment. Quistis's heart went out to it when she saw it. Naming it after the black patch of fur that formed an 'X' on its right paw. Seifer wasn't too keen on keeping the cat, but one look at Quistis's pleading eyes and he gave in. Well, more like after one long argument and Quistis saying that she was withholding any activities in bed, which left Seifer more than frustrated but reluctantly let the cat into their home.

He smiled slightly, but hid it from her, thinking about the feline companion that they used to share. "That's good, even better that the thing is out of the apartment. It always acted like it owned everything with its head held high. Stuck up little thing."

She chuckled. She was used to Seifer picking on Abscissa. She knew that even though he wouldn't admit it that he liked the cat. She once came home from work one night to find Seifer sleeping on the couch with Abscissa curled next to him.

Seifer's sea green eyes watched the blonde in front of him. He admired her, but he let her slip away. He didn't even do anything and for once he realized that it wasn't his fault. His thoughts always kept pondering whether if they would get back together. He wanted to, he wanted her.

The only thing was the two of them were too stubborn. He felt like a hormone raged teenager who couldn't figure out how women work. He had been with many women but Quistis was different. She wasn't the same as all the others. She was not only beautiful on the outside but on the inside too. Quistis Trepe was an amazing woman.

Lost in thought, Seifer didn't even realize that Quistis was rummaging through the linen closet. Until she said, "What's that smell?"

Seifer looked up at her. She was holding a peach towel that had 'Hers' embroidered on the bottom. He watched in amusement as she lifted the towel, sniffed it, and made a face. "Why do my towels smell?"

Seifer shrugged, "The toilet overflowed a few days ago. I had to clean up the mess with something."

Quistis stared in disbelief at him. "You had to go and use my towels." She rolled her eyes and shoved them back in the closet. "Why am I not surprised?" She sighed, "You keep them."

There were some things she would admit she wouldn't miss.

He chuckled as Quistis shot him another glare as she shuffled through the towels lifting them up to smell if they're decent enough to bring back with her.

He was going to miss this, the whole getting under her skin. She was too uptight sometimes. Besides, annoying her had to be one of his favorite pastimes.

He smiled at the thought of one time rearranging the placement of things in their cupboards and drawers. Quistis was beyond frustrated when she opened the cupboard that was supposed to be holding cups were now holding canned goods. She berated him for switching things around and not even informing her.

He sighed; here he was again, thinking about her. He just couldn't let go. How did that saying go? If you love something, let it go, if it returns then it's for keeps, its for sure, it was meant to be. He chided himself in his mind. Good thing she's taking those magazines away, those things weren't doing him any good.

He rubbed the back of his neck. This was starting to become more of a habit of his. "If you ever need anything, just call. I'm here if you need me." He announced when she closed the linen closet door.

It was his way of indicating that he'd be there for her. She couldn't help but think to herself. Would he really wait around for her? She doubted it. This was Seifer she was talking about. He couldn't commit to anything, but he was more than willing to be there for her if she needed him. Talk about being a good friend.

She picked up her belongings and made her way to the exit of the bedroom. Her voice echoing in the room, "Yeah… sure."

Their relationship lasted a year, but things just sort of drifted apart. There was no cheating, no other girl, no other guy. With her new job, life just seemed to get busier. She didn't have time to keep a relationship up with Seifer. Even if she wanted to, she was far too busy.

Quistis shifted her feet uncomfortably, one foot to the other. Seifer folded his arms across his chest, striking the same pose that he had when she first walked in "So… this is it."

She nodded, "Yeah." She shook her box a little, "I got everything I need." She made a reach for the doorknob and twisted it open. As she swung the door open, she turned around, "We could always get a cup of coffee some time. Y'know when neither of us is busy."

He smiled ruefully. "If you can fit me into your oh-so-busy schedule."

She frowned, "If you don't want to, it's fine by me."

"No…" He paused, "Yeah, I'd like that." The right side of his face twitched in an attempt to smile, "As I said before, give me a call. You know the number."

She gave half a smile in return, "Of course. Well I'll see you around."

He nodded watching as she slipped through the doorway.

She didn't want Seifer out of her life. Maybe, just maybe, things would work out in the end… just not now. Standing just beyond the threshold as she closed the door with one hand while supporting her box of belongings against her hip, she whispered more or less to herself, "_It's okay_."

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EDIT: Song lyrics were taken out, but it still makes sense without them. If you want to read them with the lyrics just head to my profile and click for my LJ. I'll have it posted it up there. 


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